Document handling system



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DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM Filed June 1, 1965 18 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTORS0mm) E. DYKA/m a BY BERNARD a. STEIN BWM PM AW flan/M i'heir ATTORNEYSJan. 16, 1968 D. E. DYKAAR ETAL 3,363,756

DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM Filed June 1, 1965 18 Sheets-Sheet 6 Wil -1NvENT0Rs.

DAVlD E. DYKAAR a BY BERNARD J. STEtN W ma fim W their ATTORNEYS D. E.DYKAAR ETAL 3,363,756

Jan. 16, 1968 DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM 18 Sheets-Sheet 7 Filed June 1,1965 INVENTORS. DAVID E. DYKAAR 8 BY BERNARD J. STEIN their ATTORNEYSJan. 1968 D. E. DYKAAR ETAL 3,

DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM Filed June 1, 1965 18 Sheets-Sheet 8 W /7 FIG.6

INVENTORS. DAVID E. DYKAAR a BY BERNARD J. STEIN their ATTORNEYS 1968 D.E. DYKAAR ETAL 3,

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DAVID E. DYKAAR 8 BY BERNARD J. STEIN DAM /44144441 44444 theirATTORNEYS,

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DAVID E. DYKAAR 8| Y BERNARD J. STEIN BMW E21, 45 4114 r-M their ATTOR/VEYS Jan. 16, 1968 D. E. DYKAAR ETAL DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM 18Sheets-Sheet 15 Filed June 1, 1965 \\N/ I I l I l I .l I I l I n 50 o oo r r x9350 omkww wowm w maw Y W 53 1 55 MEG mmv a A M62352 fim E n N wmm 8 ll mm wBE E 1 0mm mid mmm 20mm INVENTORS DAVID E. DYKAAR 8. BYBERNARD J. STEIN FM Quiet-M their ATTORNEYS Jan. 16, 1968 Filed June 1,1965 READ HEAD OUTPUT AMPLIFIER OUTPUT PULSE GENERATOR II II II GATEDCLOCK WINDOW CIRCUIT TWO TO EIGHT GATE TIME PULSE GENERATOR 2 II II 3 IIII 6 u u u 7 H II 8 SIGNAL GENERATOR (-2) n u u CHARACTER RESET D. E.DYKAAR ETAL DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM JAIANVVVJWWJT 18 Sheets-Sheet 16 II I I I I, I2

t3 I4 I, 5 t6 7 8 9 1N VENTORS.

DAVID E. DYKAAR 8 BY BERNARD J. STEIN Iheir ATTORNEYS Jan. 16, 1968 D.E. DYKAAR ETAL 3,363,756

DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM Filed June 1, 1965 18 Sheets-Sheet 17 u II FROMCHARACTER RESET FROM "TRANSIT NuMBER"" m COLUMN COUNTER DRIVE CIRCUITFROM SPACING 8: JAM DET. CIRCUIT TO "OR" CIRCUIT TO "AND" CIRCUITS TOJAM DETECTOR RELAY DRIVE INVENTORS.

DAVID E DYKAAR 8 BY BERNARD J. STEIN W FMc Mr-M their ATTORNEYS Jan. 16,1968 [37 E. DYKAAR ETAL 3,363,756

DOCUMENT HANDLING SYSTEM 18 Sheets-Sheet 18 Filed June 1, 1965 INVENTORS.

, DAVID E. DYKAAR 8 BY BERNARD J. STEIN ATTORNEYS their United StatesPatent 3,363,756 DUGUMENT HANBLING SYSTEM David E. Dylraar, Bayside, andBernard J. @tein, Jamaica Estates, N.Y., assignors to Lundy Electronicsdz Systems, Ine, Glen Head, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed June1, 1965, Ser. No. 466,136 53 Claims. (Cl. 259-73) ABSTRACT OF THEDISQLOMJRE A document sorting system which sorts documents into one of aplurality of pockets by reading at least one detectable character oneach document fed thereto, generating a pocket selection signalrepresentative to the detectable character, conveying the document pastthe entrance of the pockets, and energizing the pocket gate of thepocket into which the document is to be sorted so as to guide thedocument into that pocket.

This invention relates to a document handling system and, moreparticularly, to a method and apparatus for sorting documents inaccordance with detectable characters thereon.

Such sorting apparatus has wide application, for example, in the bankingindustry for checks and deposit tickets, and in commerce for billingslips and the like. Sorting equipment may also be used to advantage forhandling documents relating to a wide variety of business information bylarge corporations as well as by Government organizations such as theCivil Service Commission, Internal Revenue Service, Social SecurityAdministration and the Armed Forces. The sorting apparatus is of maximumutility if it is susceptible of use both on-line with a computer or thelike which processes the data on the documents while they are beingsorted, as well as olfline wherein it is used by itself to sort thedocuments.

Conventional sorting apparatus requires complex mechanical equipment andelectronic circuitry which makes the cost of such equipment prohibitiveto all but the larger institutions, inasmuch as the expense of thedown-time of such complex equipment is a significant factor to beconsidered. Such conventional equipment often cannot be operated from110 volt single-phase lines and usually requires special airconditioning or other ventilating equipment.

Especially complex and critical circuitry has been used for reading thecharacters on the documents. For example, in some systems, it has beennecessary to compare the electrical waveforms generated in response toeach character with numerous characteristics stored in a memory unit orby correlation with a set of simulated waveshapes accomplished withresistor matrices which are properly weighted for each character. Priorart character readers often require tapped delay lines for translatingthe infomation which is produced serially as each character is scannedinto a parallel input signal which can be accepted by logic circuitry.Such tapped delay lines are never ideal, as inherent losses distort thewaveshapes fed therethrough. Also, a delay line must be terminated insuch a way as to prevent a reflected wave from distorting a waveshaperepresenting a given character. In addition, such critical networksdrift out of adjustment as the circuit values of the components changewith time.

It is often necessary, in prior art systems, to generate clock orsynchronizing pulses which must be locked into synchronism with thesorting control circuitry. After the character on which a document is tobe sorted is read, some prior art sorters employ a rotating magnetizabledrum or the like for delaying the pocket selection signal in accordancewith the transit time of the document from the reader to the pocket intowhich the document is to be sorted, the drum being coupled to the drivewhich conveys the documents through the sorter.

Such a system for transferring a pocket selection signal to thecorresponding pocket not only requires moving parts, but the pocketselection signal is transferred to the selected pocket without regard tothe actual position and progress of the corresponding document. Anyslippage between the document and the transport mechanism due to wear orimproper adjustment, for example, will result in the document and thesignal on the rotating drum being out of synchronisrn. Furthermore,prior art sorting equipment is generally designed around a single systemof characters and cannot be readily adapted to sort documents bearingcharacters of a plurality of different types.

These and other disadvantages of the prior art are obviated in thepresent invention by feeding the documents to a character reader,reading at least one detectable character on each document, generating apocket selection signal representative of a selected character on eachdocument, delaying the pocket selection signal in accordance with thetransit time of a document between the character reader and a selectedone of a plurality of pockets into which that document is to be sorted,conveying the document from the character reader to the selected pocket,detecting the presence of the document at one or more predeterminedpositions between the character reader and the selected pocket, andenergizing the selected pocket gate in response to the delayed pocketselection signal and to the presence of the document at one of thepredetermined positions so as to guide the document into the selectedpocket.

For a more complete understanding of the invention reference may be hadto the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments taken inconjunction with the accompanying figures of the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view, portions being removed, of an exemplaryembodiment of sorting apparatus according to the present invention;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are enlarged plan views of the apparatus of FIG. 1,including a block diagram of some of the electrical circuitry fortransferring the pocket selection signals to the pockets;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are partial, enlarged views in front elevation of theapparatus of FIG. 1,. portions being removed;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are partial, enlarged views in rear elevation of thedrive mechanisms of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged end elevational view of the apparatus of FIG. 3A,portions being removed;

FIG. 6 is a view taken along the line 6-6 of FIG. 5 and looking in thedirection of the arrows;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged elevational view, partly in section, of thereading section of the apparatus of FIG. 3A;

FIG. 8 is a view taken along the line 83 of FIG. 3B and looking in thedirection of the arrows;

FIG. 9 is an enlarged elevational view, partly broken away and insection, of aportion of the apparatus of FIG. 3B including a leaf springpocket gate;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged perspective view of the leaf spring pocket gateof FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a partial, enlarged elevational view of the lower portion ofa pocket shown in FIG. 3B;

FIG. 12 is a view taken along the line 1212 of FIG. 3B and looking inthe direction of the arrows;

FIG. 13 is a view taken along the line 1313 of FIG. 3B and looking inthe direction of the arrows, showing a photoelectric cell and the sourceof light associated therewith;

FIG. 14 is a view taken along the line 1414 of FIG. 3B and looking inthe direction of the arrows;

FIG. 15 depicts an exemplary form of detectable character and a typicalwaveform of the signal generated by a magnetic reading head if the 0 ismagnetized and is passed in flux linking relation to the reading head;

FIG. 16 depicts typical waveforms generated from the 14 magnetic inkcharacters shaped in the type E-13B font which have been adopted by theBank Management Committee of the American Bankers Association;

FIGS. 17AD are interconnected block diagrams of electrical circuitryused in the sorting apparatus in accordance with an exemplary embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 18 shows the inter-relation of FIGS. 17AD;

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of amplifying and waveshaping circuitry inthe block diagram of FIG. 17A;

FIG. 19A is a schematic diagram of wave-shaping and noise-suppressingcircuitry in the block diagram of FIG. 19;

FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram of an electrical circuit, partly in blockform, of the threshold level generator of FIG. 17A;

FIG. 21 is a diagram of waveforms at selected points in the blockdiagrams of FIGS. 17A and B;

FIG. 22 is a schematic diagram of the electrical circuit of the fieldVerification circuit of FIG. 17A;

FIG. 23 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary photoelectric sensorcircuit of FIGS. 17B-D; and

FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram of the spacing and jam detector circuitof FIG. 17A.

A brief description of the invention and its method of operation may behad in conjunction with FIG. 1. The sorting apparatus 40 is mounted inan enclosure 41 which conceals much of the electrical and mechanicaldrive components behind a plurality of removable panels 42. Theenclosure 41 is supported by a plurality of casters 43 so that thesorting apparatus may be readily moved to any desired location.

The document handling portion of the apparatus may be convenientlydivided into a feeder section 45, a registration section 46, a readingsection 47, a tape transport section 48, and a pocket section 49. Astack of documents 50 to be sorted is placed upon an elevating table 51which is driven by a motor (eg. FIG. into engagement with an extractor52. The extractor includes a plurality of rollers 53, the documentengaging surfaces of which may be driven at a speed of about 60 inchesper second, for example, so as to feed at least one document from thestack 50 to a bite formed between the document engaging surfaces of aplurality of separator rollers 54 which cooperate with a plurality ofretard rollers 55 to pass single documents consecutively therebetween,the rollers 54 and 55 being driven clockwise as viewed in FIG. 1 so thatthe separator rollers 54 drive a document therebetween while the retardrollers 55 tend to prevent the passage of a document. According to oneembodiment of the invention, the document engaging surfaces of theseparator rollers 54 are driven at about 60 inches per second whilethose of the retard rollers 55 are driven at about 30 inches per second.

Disposed downstream of the retard rollers 55 are a plurality of pulloutrollers 56, the document engaging surfaces of which are driven about 60inches per second in a direction to convey the document to theregistration section 46. A plurality of idler rollers 57 is springmounted against the pullout rollers 56 to ensure that a document isfirmly grasped, and the pullout rollers 56 are spaced from the extractorrollers 53 a distance less than the length of the shortest document tobe sorted so that the pullout rollers 56 grip a given document beforethat document is released by the extractor rollers 53. This insures thateach document is positively driven through the bite formed by theseparator rollers 54 and the retard rollers 55, and it prevents adocument from being turned or displaced laterally in the registrationsection 46 until the document has passed the pullout rollers 56, therebypreventing the trailing edge of each document from displacing any of thedocuments in the stack 50.

The registration section 46 includes four rollers 60 disposed below aplatform 61 along which the documents move through the registrationsection, the platform being provided with apertures through which therollers 60 extend so as to engage the documents. Disposed above each ofthe registration rollers 60 is an idler roller (FIG. 3A) which isspring-biased against its corresponding registration roller. Aregistration plate 62 is disposed perpendicular to the platform 61 andparallel to the direction of travel of the documents from the feedersection 45 to the reading section 47, and the registration rollers aremounted on shafts which are inclined at an angle of about 10, forexample, from a line perpendicular to the registration plate 62, so asto drive one edge of a document against the registration plate while thedocument is being conveyed to the reading section 47. In this way, eachdocument is so aligned that the characters thereon, which are to beread, will pass in cooperative relation to a reading head (FIG. 3A) inthe reading section 47.

A photoelectric sensor 63, which may, for example, include a photodiodeor other suitable photoconductive device, the resistance of which isproportional to the light energy incident thereon, is disposed on oneside of the platform 61 and cooperates with a suitable source of lightin a housing 64 on the opposite side of the platform to detect thepresence of a document therebetween. A slot 65 is provided in theplatform 61 to permit the transmission of light therethrough (see FIG.2A). A deflector spring 66 prevents the leading edge of each documentfrom accidentally striking the light sensor housing 67.

The documents are conveyed through the registration section 46 at aspeed of approximately 150 inches per second, thereby causing a gapbetween successive documents which is a function of the document length,inasmuch as the documents are fed through the feeder section 45 at about60 inches per second. For example, the gap between 6 inch documentswould be about 9 inches.

The documents are then conveyed through the reading section 47 by pairsof rollers 70 and 71, which are driven by a synchronous motor andagainst which pairs of idler rollers 72. and 73 are respectivelyspring-biased (shown in phantom in FIG. 1). The synchronous driveinsures that each document is conveyed past the reading head at exactly150 inches per second, inasmuch as the waveform generated by the readinghead is dependent upon the speed of the document passing thereby. Therollers 76, 71 and 72, '73 firmly grip the documents in order to preventthem from being twisted due to the drag caused by the reading head, forexample. If the documents bear magnetic ink characters, there is acharging head for magnetizing each character, downstream of which islocated an electromagnetic transducer for generating a signal inresponse to and representative of each character passing in flux linkingrelation therewith. A pocket selection signal representative of aparticular character on each do ument is generated and stored byelectrical circuitry to be discussed hereinafter.

The documents are conveyed through the tape transport section 48 by apair of tapes 89 against which are spring-biased a plurality of idlerrollers. The tape transport section 48 serves as a speed transitionmeans between the reading section 4-7, where the documents are conveyedat a speed of 150 inches per second, and the pocket section 49, wherethe documents are conveyed at a speed of 100 inches per second. When thelead edge of document is gripped by the first pair of drive rollers 31in the pocket section 49, the tapes slip or slide along the document andmutilation is prevented.

A photoelectric sensor 82 is disposed in the tape transport section 48at a predetermined distance from the reading head such that the leadingedge of a document is di

